


Sans Réponse

by Kingrey



Series: Rapunzel Appreciation Week [3]
Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon), Tangled (2010)
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Introspection, Panic Attacks, Post Series, it's mostly Lance and Rapunzel having a discussion, the new dream/Eugene parts are very minor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-28
Updated: 2020-07-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:08:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25575556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kingrey/pseuds/Kingrey
Summary: Rapunzel Appreciation Week Day Three: DestinyShe hadn't expected anyone to be here, so the voice startled her enough to raise her head automatically, and see Lance looking down at her, obviously worried. That was when she realised that her cheeks were wet with tears, and that she was still breathing heavily. Embarrassment burnt within her, and she tried frantically to wipe off the traces of her crying with her sleeve, even though Lance had most certainly seen it.
Relationships: Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider/Rapunzel, Rapunzel & Lance Strongbow
Series: Rapunzel Appreciation Week [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1849966
Comments: 16
Kudos: 44





	Sans Réponse

**Author's Note:**

> Titles..... hard. I was about to call this answerless and then I realised that, at least, in French, it was a pun since answer (réponse) and Rapunzel (Raiponce) sounds the same  
> All of that to say that I'm bad at titles lol
> 
> Idk how this one turned out but I hope you'll enjoy!!
> 
> edit: okay so i forgot to put in the summary until now fdgshjgd I AM KINDA STUPID BUT NICE SO THERE'S THAT

Rapunzel didn't know how she managed to stumble to the castle's garden without anyone seeing her, but she thanked her luck for it. Thanked it for not waking up Eugene from his exhausted sleep when she opened her eyes with a start, thanked it for making the guards' rounds synch up with her barely coherent dash for fresh air, thanked it for making sure no one was here - though, since it was the middle of the night, she wasn't quite sure it was luck and not simply common sense. Yeah, maybe none of this was luck, maybe it was Eugene being rightfully tired after a hard day of work, maybe the guards were only respecting there wishes for privacy, maybe- maybe-

Rapunzel wasn't feeling lucky, right now. Her chest was too tight and, despite the evening's air, she could barely draw a breath. Her face felt too hot and uncomfortable, and she couldn't _breathe_ , and- She let herself sit down heavily, back pressed against one of the trees, until she could put her knees in front of her and hide her head in them. She was too dramatic, she knew it. It was only a bad dream, and it didn't happen anyway so _why_ , why couldn't her heart slow down, why-

"Rapunzel?"

She hadn't expected anyone to be here, so the voice startled her enough to raise her head automatically, and see Lance looking down at her, obviously worried. That was when she realised that her cheeks were wet with tears, and that she was still breathing heavily. Embarrassment burnt within her, and she tried frantically to wipe off the traces of her crying with her sleeve, even though Lance had most certainly seen it.

"Lance!" she exclaimed awkwardly, putting her palms over her eyes to get rid of the blurriness. "What are you- I mean, I was just- I..."

"Hey, Rapunzel, breathe," Lance said, not even trying to humour her excuses.

She felt more than she saw him kneeling down before her, and she had to fight the childish desire to curl up even further on herself until he disappeared. She knew he wouldn't leave her alone in this state, but she was fine, she just needed… If only she could breathe, everything would be fine, she had no reason not to be, she-

"Do you feel my hand?"

"Wh- What?" she stuttered through her uneven breathing.

"My hand," Lance repeated, voice low and soothing. "Can you tell me where it is?"

It took a few seconds for her muddled mind to understand the request, and a few more to finally realise the warm weight now resting on her knee. She hadn't even noticed that Lance had touched her, too lost in her panic.

"It's… on the top of my right knee," she mumbled.

"Great!" he exclaimed, without even a hint of irony - and Rapunzel smiled weakly. "By the way, what was that bird from this morning again? You know, you told me it wasn't a pigeon, even if it _did_ look like a pigeon, you can't change my mind on that-"

"Starling," she sniffed, meeting his eyes. "It was a starling, and they look nothing like pigeons."

"Sure?" Lance prompted again, even if she could see that he was more concerned for her than interested in the differences between a pigeon and a starling.

The thing was, this distraction was working. Slowly, while she described the patterns on their wings and the colours of their beaks, Rapunzel started to breathe normally again. Her heart calmed down, her tears stopped, and even if she still looked like a wreck, she at least didn't feel like one.

"Last question," Lance smiled when she didn't have anything else to say on birds and their specific characteristics, "do you want a hug?"

He barely had the time to finish that thought that she was throwing herself in his arms, desperate for a comfort that she had been so happy to flee earlier. Lance gave great hugs - more than great, even. They were warm, and gentle and, in Rapunzel's opinion, they had only gotten better since he adopted Angry and Catalina. Perhaps it was getting used at holding people smaller than him in a more regular basis.

"You're good at comforting people," she laughed when the hug ended and she scooted back. They were both still sitting on the ground, and she would feel a little embarrassed if she didn't know Lance was the last person to care.

"Eh, I had practice," he shrugged, shifting to be comfortable.

"The girls?"

"Eugene." Silence settled between them for a moment, as Lance seemed to think back on his memories. "Though, to be fair, he comforted me a lot more than he ever let _me_ comfort him."

Rapunzel hummed, but didn't add anything. It was easy to forget what Eugene and Lance went through as children. She knew it had lasting consequences on both of them, that one didn't forget being an orphan even after finding a family - but they were both so good at making people ignore it that, even though she had witnessed first-hand these consequences, it sometimes still took her by surprise. The idea that, as young children, Lance and Eugene only had each other to turn to for comfort made her want to cry all over again - _but at least, it would be for good reason this time_ , an angry voice in her mind told her.

"I had a dream," she blurted out, drawing Lance's attention back on her. "And… It wasn't even a _bad_ one, you know, but…"

"If it made you this upset Princess, I'll call that a bad dream."

"But it wasn't! It was- It was mostly a feeling," she tried to explain, playing with her short hair distractedly, "like… some kind of emptiness within me. I had no purpose anymore, no destiny to accomplish and everything was so- so- I don't know why, but when I woke up, I could barely breathe and-"

"Hey now," Lance interrupted, moving until he was sitting next to her, back against the tree, "let's not panic about it again, shall we?"

She nodded, and they stayed silent for a while, just breathing in the evening air. Lance was usually more talkative, but he was also very perceptive, she knew that. She had to admit that the silence was soothing. Her dream had been… Strange. And more than that, it felt like it had never truly left her since she woke up, and was still lurking beneath her skin, that feeling of emptiness ready to swallow her whole. She had hated it. Had hated being meaningless and powerless, had hated it even more for being true because she _wasn't_ the sundrop anymore, she was simply Rapunzel. The destiny she had been clinging on for three years was gone and she didn't know what to do now.

"It's easier, that destiny stuff," Lance said suddenly, breaking the silence. She turned her head towards him, but he was looking straight ahead, deep in thoughts. "Thinking that, no matter what you do, no matter what happens, you're on a path you can't deviate from. It's easier, isn't it?"

She shrugged, not sure she would have put it in this exact form. She did think she had a destiny. Maybe not anymore but, as the sundrop, it had to have been her destiny to find the moonstone, right? And now that she didn't have that anymore, she had nothing else to do… Right? But that sounded wrong to her own ears. If her destiny had been to reunite sundrop and moonstone, then her destiny had been to die. Or, maybe her destiny hadn't been to die, but to be betrayed by Cassandra and, honestly, that didn't sound any better, because it meant that it was _destiny_ which made them both hurt the other so deeply. She didn't like this idea at all.

"Not many people know that," Lance continued quietly, "but I wasn't abandoned like Eugene. My parents died when I was six."

"Lance," Rapunzel exhaled, putting a hand on his arm. He smiled in her direction, patting her hand gently and finally meeting her eyes. He didn't look sad, simply thoughtful.

"Don't worry, it was a long time ago. I don't really remember them, or even what happened but- What I'm trying to say is, for a long time, I liked thinking that all of this was destiny, you know?"

"I know," she acquiesced, because she truly did, in a way. It was easier to explain being kidnapped and abused by Gothel as being a part of destiny, instead of being simply… Life, in all its unfairness.

"We didn't have many books, but in a lot of them, the heroes had dead parents. Eugene didn't like them much," Lance chuckled, "he preferred the adventures to the backstories. But, for the longest time, I took them as a sign that, one day, my parents dying would have helped me become a greater person than everyone else. That, actually, I deserved losing them, because it would all make sense in the end."

"But you were a child, you didn't deserve that at all!" she protested.

"Exactly. I didn't, Eugene didn't, Angry and Catalina didn't and…"

"... and I didn't deserve what happened to me either, because no one does," Rapunzel finished, knowing exactly where he was going with that.

It seemed evident, now that Lance pointed it out. For the longest time, and even today, destiny had been the justification she had used for every difficulty she had to face. She needed to go to the Dark Kingdom, even though she was terrified, because it was her destiny. She had to take the moonstone, even though it could potentially kill her, because it was her destiny. She had to fight Cassandra, had to protect her kingdom, had to risk her loved ones' lives against Zhan Tiri because- because-

Destiny. Easier to blame, and easier to trust into.

She didn't think she could excuse her bad choice by saying it was her destiny to do them, but she tended to explain what hurt her by giving it meaning through that concept. It didn't add up. And it was true that, when thinking of Lance, or Eugene, or anyone else, she didn't excuse anything by destiny. Even if it meant he ended up not meeting her, she would never want Eugene to be abandoned and to grow up feeling unloved, she would never wish for him to need to steal to survive. All of that might have made him who he was today, and she loved him with all she was, but she still wouldn't _want_ it for him if she had the choice.

And she knew that, even if Lance wasn't putting it into words, he would do anything so that Catalina and Angry never had to suffer again. So, if he had the choice, he would probably make the same one: assure them a good life, even if it meant they couldn't meet.

Not that she wanted a world where she didn't meet Eugene. But she couldn't in good faith think that her kidnapping, and his abandon were justified, even by destiny. Eugene had never chosen to be born in a kingdom destroyed by the moonstone, had never chosen for his father to stay behind while he was put in an orphanage, and yet, he still had to live with what it did to him. And she… She had never chosen to be the sundrop, had never chosen for her mom to get sick, and yet, she was reaping the consequences and called them destiny because it was easier to deal with it that way. So, maybe, her nightmare shouldn't have been one; maybe she didn't have to have a meaning or a mission, maybe she never truly did anyway.

Was it emptiness or was it freedom she was feeling?

"All I'm trying to tell you," Lance sighed, stretching his arms above his head, "is that, thinking that we all have a destiny makes things easier sometimes, but I don't think we actually do have one that's set in stone. Look at you, you were literally born in the royal family and, for eighteen years, you didn't even know you were a Princess!"

Rapunzel laughed at his exasperated tone, and he joined her. They probably were both too tired for this conversation. The night sky was becoming lighter, and it wouldn't take long for the sun to come up - she didn't even know how long they had stayed here.

"Also, for what it matters, everything you did wasn't the result of a path, but of you being a good person and making the best choices you could," Lance smiled. "Give yourself some credit."

"You're going to make me cry again," Rapunzel answered, more touched than she would care to admit.

She had never thought to be especially proud of what she did as the embodiment of the sundrop because… Because it was what she was supposed to do, wasn't it? When she still believed Gothel, she thought she had a duty to protect her powers from the outside world; once on her quest, she thought she had a duty to stop the black rocks and take the moonstone. But it was true that she could have… not done it. It wasn't anyone that had been brave - it was her, Rapunzel. And in a few sentences, Lance had managed to make her see it for the first time.

"I think..." Lance trailed off for a moment, looking for his words. "I think life is way less fate, or destiny, and more choices, and accidents, and, uh-"

"Horses," Rapunzel snorted.

Lance's raised eyebrows made her laugh again because, of course, he didn't know every details of her first meeting with Eugene. Now that she thought of it, maybe that cynical comment had been right. Fate, or destiny could be used as explanations, but at the end of the day, it was a horse that led Eugene here in front of her, and that was all that mattered. Because all they had needed was to meet, and the rest, the friendship and the love that grew from it - it was all their choices. It was her, choosing to trust him despite her fears, and him, letting her see who he truly was. It was soothing words to calm her down, an aborted kiss on the best day of her life, a dramatic haircut because Eugene was ready to give his life for her freedom.

"Thank you, Lance," she said, not sure she could convey how much this discussion had helped her. It wouldn't fix all her fears, of course but it felt good nonetheless. People often didn't give him enough credits for it, but Lance had plenty of good pieces of advice to give - which made him an incredible father to Angry and Catalina, amongst other things.

"Happy I could help," he yawned, "though I didn't expect thinking about the metaphysical implications of destiny when I got up to fetch a glass of water at 4am."

Instead of answering, Rapunzel got up to hug him a second time, and he hugged her back happily. Then he yawned again and, considering that the sun was appearing on the horizon, Rapunzel accompanied him back to the guestroom that was mostly considered Lance's room, since he and the girls often spent the night here. The castle's staff was slowly waking up but, thankfully, no one questionned their presence, or even their dreadful expressions - a sleepless night wasn't kind on anyone.

She thought herself too energised to go back to sleep but, when she opened the door to her bedroom and saw Eugene still deeply asleep and hugging a pillow to his chest, she couldn't help but slip under the covers with him. He sought her out immediately, mumbling something incoherent against her skin before settling down, and she remembered once again how incredible it was to have him in her life. She loved him, had been loving him for years now, and the simplest moments made her heart beat faster with emotion, no matter the time that had passed. Destiny and fate had no influence over that - no influence over the way his hair shone under the light, or the warmth of his hands around her waist, or the cuteness of his little snores when he slept. They had no influence over the way she choose to love him more everyday, or the way he did it too for her.

Perhaps she owed Maximus an apple or two, however.

**Author's Note:**

> Tangled: ahah it could have been destiny or maybe only just a horse, but the important thing is that Rapunzel and Eugene met 🥰
> 
> TTS: the concept of destiny is a major plot point that is never truly explained nor questionned. Cass wants Rapunzel's destiny and even if that's a sentence empty of any literal meaning, we are going to use it heavily. Every time the word destiny is used, it was done in a way made to spite ao3 user Kingrey specifically because we know she hates it. F*ck her.
> 
> fdghdsjds ANYWAY  
> I love Lance but he was hard to write here. Also tiny bit of sleepy fluff because I'm weak lol I hope you enjoyed this!!


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